MILITARY TRADITION

Interfaith on every base.

The Presidio Chapel embodies the unique interfaith tradition of the United States military, in which post chapels served as centers of worship and ministry for service men and women and their families of many religions. It honors those who have fallen in combat and those who survived as veterans of war. And it honors their family members on military bases and installations in the United States and around the world.

In peacetime and in war, military personnel and their families, led by innovative Chaplains, Rabbis, and Priests, shared space, built friendships, and learned from each other within the walls of these chapels. Some also ministered in makeshift extensions required at the front lines of battle. In peacetime, military families of Protestant, Catholic and Jewish faith have fond memories of sharing the same building, different services scheduled one after the other, altar spaces reorganized for their turn to worship. The restoration of the Presidio Chapel celebrates these experiences, bringing them into synergy with the ICP’s mission for peace through interfaith dialogue and ministry to those who served.

​Sacred space by the Golden Gate

"Post chapels have the same place on all military posts – with the graveyard, on the way from War to Eternal Peace. At the San Francisco Presidio, the Post Chapel, built in 1931, sits near the now-closed Eastern Gate of the San Francisco National Cemetery. Here is the internment of 30,000 soldiers and sailors, men and women who served and died for America from the Civil War through the Indian Wars of the American West, the Spanish-American War, the Mexican Expedition, the defense and rebuilding of San Francisco following the 1906 Earthquake and Fire, World Wars I and II, Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq wars. The Cemetery is shared with Unknowns from the original Spanish Colonial Presidio of San Francisco cemetery, dating from the late 1600’s.

​The Golden Gate – in view of the Post Chapel – is the namesake of the long-closed Eastern Gate of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem -- the Shushan Gate – which according to Jewish tradition is where the Divine Presence would appear -- and will appear again at the Messiah’s Coming, according to Ezekiel (44:1-3). It is fitting that today the religious focus of the Chapel restoration, should be honoring the fallen, ministering to the veterans, and uniting the divided with a view for a future of peace on earth.

Richard Harris - US ARMY Veteran

I grew up on Navy bases abroad and I remember the chapels always there on the Main posts. On Rodman Navy Base in the Panama Canal Zone, the chapel was a humble building that served a critical, beautiful function: an amazing workhorse that facilitated different religious services one after the other, welcoming everyone on the base and everyone who came to visit from a ship in port. This project is personal – it celebrates how the military ensured that those who served, from the US and from other countries, could worship.